A Generic Approach:Appraisal Resources Of Literature Review In Master’s Theses In Linguistics

With the increasing academic communication in the international world, improving the Chinese scholars’ academic writing ability in English has long been a challenging task. By referring to Swales’s CARS (Create a Research Space) model, the present study starts with an attempt to conclude the generic structure of literature review after examining twenty English research articles (RALR) from four leading international journals on linguistics. Then it goes on to explore the distributional frequency of appraisal resources in different moves in this structure. Finally, another twenty literature review texts from master theses (MTLR) are analyzed in comparison to reveal their insufficiency.We propose a Three-Move Five-Step structure for Literature Review, on the basis of which, this paper goes further to see the distributional frequency of appraisal resources. The findings show that Move1, namely Establishing the Research Territory, mainly involves Satisfaction Affect, Appreciation and Capacity Judgment, Acknowledge, Disclaim and Endorse, Quantification, Intensification, Fufilment and Specificity. Move2, Creating a Niche, involves negative Valuation and Composition, Dissatisfaction, Entertain, Disclaim and Quantification. Move3, Occupying the Niche, includes Reaction, Endorse, Disclaim and Specificity. In contrast, MTLR exhibits a Two-Move Four-Step generic structure. Seven major insufficient features are found:(1) weak critical awareness;(2) redundant topic generalization;(3) single form of niche statements;(4) overly claiming centrality;(5) lacking adequate objectiveness;(6) overly affirming external propositions;(7) less heteroglossic.